Social behavior: Peaceful schooling fish, that can be combined with other fish in a general community tank.

Diet: Omnivorous; In nature it feeds on worms, crustaceans, insects, and it also needs some vegetable matter, such as algae. It will eat dried foods in an aquarium.

Breeding: Quite easy

Tank: Minimum 70 litres

Population: 1 male and 2-3 females for 70 litres

Decoration: Needs a tank with dense aquatic vegetation and open areas for swimming. You may add some salt to their water: 1 teaspoon for every 5 litres, or they can be kept in brackish water too.

Temperature: 24-28 °C

pH: 7-8.2

Hardness: 25-30 NK°

Lifespan: 3-5 years

Description: Cuban limia has a bluish-gray back, silvery sides and white belly. On the flanks there is a slight horizontal band and it is covered with irregular, bluish-black spots. Males have yellow colored dorsal and tail fins with bluish-black markings. Females have colorless fins, and possess a slight yellow or orange patch near the vent. Their coloring just gets better with age. Males also have a gonopodium (transformated anal fin), and a smaller more slender body. Females are almost twice as big as males. When they are kept in a group a hierarchy will evolve among the males, and the alpha male will be the largest and most colorful, sometimes this fish has nearly all the yellow markings among the males. Some collectors have observed that wild populations areen’t as „colorful” as the aquarium strain.

Breeding of Cuban limia is quite easy, similar to other livebearers. Males will pursuit the females, but not as incessantly as other livebearer males. Limia species will readily hybridize not only with each other but with Poecilia species as well, so it’s best to keep just one livebearer species per tank. The regularly fed adults are rarely eat the fry, and they can be left in the breeding tank. The female will pruduce 20-50 fry after a gestation of 4-6 weeks, but a larger female can produce over 100 fry in a single birthing. The fry usually swim in the lower reaches of their tank, while the adults stay in the upper half of the water column. The fry have the Dalmatian pattern from the beginning, and are large enough to take brine shrimp or chopped Tubifex worm. The young grow at a fast rate.